Draft Options and Goalie Opinions!!!

[Chewbert]

Hey everyone!

Have an upcoming draft this weekend for my Keeper Salary League. Drafting from the 5 spot in a non-snake draft, 10 team league. My keepers are in signature, can also drop keepers during the draft at no penalty.

Start 12 F, 6 D, 1 G, and 4 optional bench spots.

Points only and +/-.

Here are the available players who have caught my eye, all have salaries I can afford as I will be entering the draft with $45,559,500 in cap space for 8-12 players (We use Capfriendly total salary). Hoping to get some opinions of who you would target and when would you target them? I should have a chance to grab a few of the top guys as I have the most cap space heading into the draft and typically most teams will prioritize ELC players early.

Forwards:
Lafreniere - assuming he will go in the first 4 picks.
Kakko
JT Miller
Tavares
Seguin
Gaurdreau
Fiala
Reinhart
Bennett
Rossi
Duclair
W. Karlsson
R. Smith
T. Hall
Nichushkin
N. Ritchie
Laine
N. Patrick
J. Norris

D-men:
J. Carlson
A. Martinez
B. Byram
T. Krug
S. Girard
S. Jones
R. Dahlin
J. Chychrun
R. Sandin
A. DeAngelo
T. Smith

Also, when it comes to goalies who are available I am wondering who to target as well, looking at trying to obtain a tandem if possible.

Points are 2 for a W, 4 for a SO, and 1 for OTL.

Andersen/Raanta
Kuemper/Francouz
Ullmark/Swayman

Others available are..
Binnington
Markstrom
Demko
Shesterkin
Petersen
Sorokin
Saros

Thanks in advance and will REP where possible!

EDIT: Maximum positions starts for each position, G-82. D-492, F-984. Bench is there in case of injuries or a player hitting a cold streak.

[Invictus]

I question whether holding a 2nd goalie is even worth it.
12F 6D is a lot of starting slots to shuffle 4 bench players around with. Unless it's just weekly starts? I don't think I understand how your bench works.
I'd probably grab Kuemper 4.5m - plug and forget.

[Chewbert]

I question whether holding a 2nd goalie is even worth it.
12F 6D is a lot of starting slots to shuffle 4 bench players around with. Unless it's just weekly starts? I don't think I understand how your bench works.
I'd probably grab Kuemper 4.5m - plug and forget.

It's a year long pool with max starts for each position: Goalies are 82 for an 82 game season. Total forward starts are 12x82, d-men 6x82. Bench is basically there for injuries or if someone hits a cold streak. Can swap players daily but with there being a max of games per position you really need to make the starting lineup as efficient as possible. So a tandem would cover all 82 games for that team (unless injures etc.), that's why I am considering going the way of a tandem. Last year my goalies seemed to play too many of the same nights and it made it hard to maximize my starts.

Max starts: G-82. D-492, F-984

If that makes sense? Sorry I should have included that originally!

[newfcollins]

I'd go one of Lafreniere, Kakko, Chychrun and DeAngelo.

For goalies, I'd stay away from Boston, as Rask may come back at some point during the season, so it's hard to predict. I would target the Colorado goalies, but you seem to be rebuilding, so failing Boston, I'd try to grab Petersen a little later on.

[Chewbert]

I'd go one of Lafreniere, Kakko, Chychrun and DeAngelo.

For goalies, I'd stay away from Boston, as Rask may come back at some point during the season, so it's hard to predict. I would target the Colorado goalies, but you seem to be rebuilding, so failing Boston, I'd try to grab Petersen a little later on.

I really like Chuchrun and he was actually on my team but let him go this year and kept Forsling instead (sounds dumb I know) but it saved me $3.3m and I am terrified of the potential massive +/- totals that could happen in Arizona.

Laff I would love to get but would be blown away if he made it to pick 5.

DeAngelo is a big risk reward player, hard to argue with the potential and salary but if he doesn’t pan out I could really miss out on a key piece to my team for this year and moving forward.

Thanks for the input and I was in a rebuild mindset as I am new to this league and took over a team two season ago but as a somewhat limited keeper league and only 10 teams I’d rather add building pieces as I go and try to push to contend each year.

Rebuilding is scary for me as I like to tinker far too much and would probably end up like Buffalo in a constant rebuild haha.

[Invictus]

Oh makes sense. Ya for sure you will want two goalies.
High win teams (COL. CAR).
Same cap hit maybe? (Kuemper is showing as 3.5m on the team page, but if you click on him he shows 4.5m so idk).

39m left for skaters...
You'll want to plan that out to see who all you can fit. Little occupied to run through cap numbers right now.
You can import the list from cap friendly using excel if you are good with it.
And if you have projections for each player you can run Advanced Filter to figure out best optimized team under cap restraints.

Then you gotta figure out the order of drafting them so opponents don't take them

[Chewbert]

Oh makes sense. Ya for sure you will want two goalies.
High win teams (COL. CAR).
Same cap hit maybe? (Kuemper is showing as 3.5m on the team page, but if you click on him he shows 4.5m so idk).

39m left for skaters...
You'll want to plan that out to see who all you can fit. Little occupied to run through cap numbers right now.
You can import the list from cap friendly using excel if you are good with it.
And if you have projections for each player you can run Advanced Filter to figure out best optimized team under cap restraints.

Been mocking up some potential teams using capfriendly total salary and FHG projections for my league on here to try to see what I can come up with.

I think the CAR tandem would be $5.750m and COL would be $7.2m. So better value with Andersen/Raanta but close enough I’d be happy to get either if possible.

[Chewbert]

I think figuring out the order is the toughest part, especially being new to cap leagues. I feel like I can guess but some teams go ELC early, others PP D men and others the top forwards. It’s an absolute gong show haha. But that’s what makes it fun. Prep for anything and hope you get lucky!

[Invictus]

As it was mentioned you might benefit more from doing a rebuild. These next two years are really good years to look to rebuild.

I don't play rebuild type leagues so the only thing I'll really say is that I know there are plenty of others well able to help you with that should that be the path you want to take.

[Chewbert]

As it was mentioned you might benefit more from doing a rebuild. These next two years are really good years to look to rebuild.

I don't play rebuild type leagues so the only thing I'll really say is that I know there are plenty of others well able to help you with that should that be the path you want to take.

Appreciate all the advice! Thanks! We shall see how the first half of the season goes and if not well then possibly blow the team up and rebuild haha.